Mercedes upgrades cannot solve major Hamilton bugbear

Lewis Hamilton says "nothing" can solve the cockpit problems on Mercedes' W14 Formula 1 car, but that recent upgrades are a "real positive".

Both Hamilton and George Russell sit considerably further forward in the W14 than any other front-running car, with Hamilton voicing his displeasure around the time of the Australian Grand Prix, complaining he did not have confidence with the rear of the car.

Mercedes introduced their long-awaited upgrade package in Monaco, with Hamilton finishing best of the rest next time out in Spain behind race-winner Max Verstappen, having been impressed with what the upgrades delivered to the car, particularly with the suspension.

Cockpit problems cannot be solved

"There's nothing you can do about that, it's just the way it is," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.com, when asked if the new suspension parts had eased his troubles with the seat position.

"Everything you can do is just try to slow the rate of rotation, stabilise the rear end. It's trying to do it on a mechanical balance, but you're just limited with the tools that you have. It's the same ones as last year.

"But the new suspension was a real positive for me. It gave me a lot of confidence [especially in Monaco]."

"Slowly chipping away"

Having abandoned their zero sidepod concept, Mercedes will spend the rest of 2023 learning and understanding their more conventional design, which was never intended to immediately put them on par with Red Bull and the dominant RB19 machine.

Both Hamilton and Russell have been involved in steering the W14 back onto the right path, but the 103-time Grand Prix winner admits "it's just a long process."

"George and I over the past year [have been having those] constant conversations [with the team] where you're like: 'Why does that look like that and we look like this?' 'Have we tried that?'

"Now we have the wider sidepods, more in the direction of what the Red Bull is, it's not been my decision to go that way.

"I think it's been clear that when we dropped the car back on the ground at the first test, it's basically the sister, the identical twin of last year's car, except for some of the bouncing.

"It still had some of the very similar characteristics of how it drives, the bouncing, but we've taken account, taken note of where we have gone wrong.

"Now we are just slowly chipping away and trying to navigate our way back to the front. It's just a long process, unfortunately."